Marquez claims record 13th pole

Marc Marquez claimed a record 13th MotoGP pole position of the season in the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.

The Spaniard, who reclaimed his MotoGP title earlier this month with a second-placed finish at the Japanese MotoGP, beat Repsol Honda Team team-mate Dani Pedrosa to first place with a time of one minute 59.791 seconds.

Pedrosa, who topped the time sheets during Friday’s rain-affected practice session, was 0.182secs adrift in second, while Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo was a further 0.230s back in third to make it a Spanish top-three.

Japanese rider Hiroshi Aoyama (Drive M7 Aspar) brought up the rear by finishing 11th in final qualifying – more than 10 seconds adrift of Marquez’s winning time.

Marquez and Pedrosa were the only riders to break the two-minute barrier at the Sepang International Circuit and the champion is looking forward to renewing his duel with his fellow Spaniard in Sunday’s race.

“It will be a good race with Dani as he has a good rhythm,” he told www.motogp.com.

“Jorge will be there at the start, but Dani is very strong over race distance. If it’s wet we’ll see, anything could happen.”

Marquez added: “I’m also happy to have broken the record.

“Maybe pole positions are somewhat insignificant because they don’t give you any points, but you achieve them by being the fastest rider over a single lap.

“That doesn’t mean that you will be the fastest in the race, of course, so the most important thing is what happens tomorrow.”